


Natural Deviations

by cartographicalspine



Series: The Hearthkeeper [3]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Circle of Magi, Gen, Rules of Survival, Schemes and Escape Plans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-10 21:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12920601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cartographicalspine/pseuds/cartographicalspine
Summary: In the high tower of mages, mistakes are made.A divergence on the Mage Origin'sBound in Blood and Magicquest.





	Natural Deviations

The air in the chamber chilled Leda to the bone, as she’d expected for the sake of the vials housed within, but that wasn’t what made her blood run cold when she crossed the threshold. Holding her hand up, she gestured at Jowan and Lily to hang back and then clambered carefully over the rubble still shifting beneath her from the blast. Ice seemed to cling to her lungs even under the heavy capelet on the robes forced upon her, and she could barely keep her hands from trembling like dry, cracked parchment. No, this was not cold, but dread.

The sentries lay dead but undamaged on the ancient stone floor, half-shrouded by white spellwork mist and fog. Heart pounding, she forced herself up the steps to the blood-laden shelves, every fiber of her screaming at her to take Jowan and Lily and  _run._  But in the tower the only direction to go is up, ever upward, even here in the dark.

“Good. You made it.”

Leda clenched her fists to keep them from shaking, but even with his back to her she knew that he was well aware. “You. What are _you_ doing here?”

Surana turned, hands clasped loosely in front of him, idling at something; even his smile was colder than every single ice glyph in this room put together. “You haven’t forgotten my offer, have you?”

She bristled immediately.  _”I told you—”_

“Enchanter?” Jowan and Lily had joined her at the top of the steps, pale-faced and shaken by this turn of events. “Wait...is that…?”

In his hands, a tiny vial.

“You know this cannot be allowed,” Surana said, a quiet, even tone that almost sounded bored, as though he had better things to be doing with his time. She’d always hated it, that he placed himself above it all. “Reckless and ill-considered, but I am here to help you correct that. A few documents here and there, a distraction, a back door. No one will know you were here tonight. This need not end poorly.”

“You twisted little—” He didn’t even blink at the string of curses she spat at him.

“Amell.” Jowan stepped forward hesitantly, his hand resting gently on her arm. “E-Enchanter, please. They’re going to make me—”

“Tranquil? Yes. But the alternative, carefully evaluated, is so much worse.”

At this, Jowan fractured and erupted in anger. “How can you say that? They’re going to take everything that I am and leave me with nothing. I’ll become a shell, I’ll  _be_  nothing. I thought…”

He clapped a hand over his mouth like he was trying not to heave or maybe cry. “I thought you liked me. I thought you cared, like Uldred.”

Surana’s eyes narrowed. “That is exactly why I am here, Jowan.”

Leda snorted and for once didn’t care about how unfeminine it made her sound. “Oh, sure. That’s why you want him to shackle himself to Tranquility for something he didn’t even do. Real caring, Enchanter.”

“Don’t be absurd; it has everything to do with practicality.” He was fidgeting with the vial in his hands now, frowning softly at the stores of phylacteries around them. “You cannot overcome Irving’s blindness or Greagoir’s paranoia through brute force. What matters first and foremost is your safety. Contentment and wellbeing are simply extensions of it to strive for.”

“What about my feelings? What about me?” Jowan clenched his hands around the stolen staff from the repository. “I love Lily; does that mean nothing, too?”

Surana couldn’t have looked more unimpressed had he been actively trying. “Short-sighted, but I cannot blame you. These...feelings have caused you to commit many stupidities tonight.”

He trailed his fingers over the surface of the desk behind him, gaze sweeping around the room before returning to them. “We all have our place in this world. Coming into awareness of it is not ‘nothing’, and it is not ‘uncaring.’ If you refuse the tools in front of you and complain that you’re trapped, who do you expect to blame? Regardless of what you think to find out there, it’s meaningless if you don’t know how to survive.”

Leda swallowed down bile and tried not to imagine a world where she’d consider her best friend being stripped of his emotions as  _surviving._  “Just because Jowan’s experienced more happiness this past week than you have your entire, miserable existence doesn’t mean this is wrong. Maybe  _you’re_  wrong, you and this rotten prison. Maybe you can’t stand the thought that we might be right, that we can survive without letting Jowan take the fall for us.”

“I did not suggest—”

”You want me to be made Tranquil!” Jowan roared, held back only by Lily and Leda’s quick hands at his shoulders. 

“We’ve heard enough,” Leda said through gritted teeth. “Here’s a counteroffer: drop the vial and back away now, and you get to come out as a victim in this.”

He looked almost amused, that prick, if he’d had any emotion left in that cold, empty shell of his. “Amell, you could not touch me if you tried a hundred years.”

She released Jowan and sent a gust of flashing fire at Surana. Unsurprisingly, it broke and sputtered out against his arcane shield without so much as a flinch from him. The constant aura of weakness did its job beautifully, as she’d known. But the intricate, delicate objects on the shelves were rattled thoroughly.

Surana’s gaze followed hers to the thousands upon thousands of magicks and enchantments locked away in the repository. She saw realization dawn on him. “Amell.”

Her palms burned with the crackling of fire, and behind her Jowan and Lily were tipping over into attack mode again. Either he dropped his protections or lost the Circle their grand trove; either way would hurt,  _badly._  “Do not.”

He was a planner, yes, but she was all reaction, an improviser, and she knew which would be the decider tonight.

The fireball seared and licked at her hands, and the memory of it continued as he slammed into her, mana clashing against mana, with Lily’s dagger snaking under her arm and into Surana's side, and at last they heard the triumphant shattering of the tiny vial under Jowan’s heel.

The world went mana-empty dark.


End file.
